Increasing support for Apple's opposition to building encryption backdoors for US govt

The latest demand of the US government revolves around a terrorist attack by a married couple in San Bernadino in December last year, which left 14 dead and more than 20 injured.Neha Alawadhi | ET Bureau | February 18, 2016, 17:11 IST

"The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand," Cook said in a "Customer Letter" on Apple's website on Wednesday.

Apple and the US government have clashed earlier as well on the government's demand to build a mechanism to break the encryption- or the practice of scrambling data such that only intended recipients can read it.

The latest demand of the US government revolves around a terrorist attack by a married couple in San Bernadino in December last year, which left 14 dead and more than 20 injured.

Cook said Apple has complied with the investigating agencies in the case and will continue to do so within the purview of the law in the United States. "But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone," he said in the letter.

"Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession," Cook added.

He further stated that complying with this request "would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control".

Cook's statement was hailed on social media and found widespread support, including from Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who in 2013 exposed the large scale mass surveillance programmes being run by the US government, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

"The @FBI is creating a world where citizens rely on #Apple to defend their rights, rather than the other way around," tweeted Snowden on Wednesday.

"The technical changes the @FBI demands would make it possible to break into an iPhone (5C or older) in a half hour," he said in another tweeted, and went on to demand that Google also make its position on the issue known.

Pichai tweeted his support early Thursday morning in a series of tweets, calling Tim Cook's post important. " We build secure products to keep your information safe and we give law enforcement access to data based on valid legal orders...But that's wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices & data. Could be a troubling precedent," he said in two tweets, adding that he looks forward to a an open discussion on this important issue.

The Reform Government Surveillance, a coalition of companies including Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter also issued a statement later in the day:

"Reform Government Surveillance companies believe it is extremely important to deter terrorists and criminals and to help law enforcement by processing legal orders for information in order to keep us all safe. But technology companies should not be required to build in backdoors to the technologies that keep their users' information secure. RGS companies remain committed to solutions that provide law enforcement with the help it needs while protecting the security of their customers and their customers' information," it said.

Encryption has of late become a serious issue the world over, with governments asking for greater control and more backdoors to access user data in the name of national security concerns. Some companies have argued that encryption, if compromised, can compromise the privacy and security of their customers, who will become susceptible to greater government surveillance if encryption is broken.